The association’s call comes on the back of the bizarre circumstances that led to the death of a 70-year-old man after he was turned away by seven hospitals for lack of beds.

Speaking on The Point of View on Citi TV last night, General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr Justice Yankson said the current system lacked the equipment and capacity to deal rapidly with emergency situations.

“You cannot go seven different hospitals under different management with a different health professional and get same results; then you should know that there is something wrong, even our foremost hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital you cannot claim that they have a well-resourced emergency room,” he said.

Speaking on the same program, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Robert Cudjoe, however, blamed the current situation on the attitude of healthcare professionals.

“Looking at the investment that has made over the years to improve upon the health outcome in this country and where we are now, this where at times the issue of attitude cannot be ruled out entirely in the equation,” he said.

A 70-year-old man, Prince Anthony Opoku Acheampong died over the weekend in what his family believes was an avoidable death.

The man spent almost two hours being transported from one hospital to the other by his family to seek urgent medical attention.

They covered about 50 kilometres travelling to seven major hospitals where doctors and nurses refused to attend to him because they said there were no beds.

Read Also: Missing Gold: How Ghana lost over $6 billion in gold export revenue to major trading partners

His family has blamed the doctors for the death because they said not even a single doctor listened to their plea to at least offer him some care to sustain him.

Credit: citinewsroom.com

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Our assessment revealed that HIV was ranked the number 4 leading cause of death among admitted patients with 1042 deaths, ahead of Cerebrovascular Accidents, Pneumonia and Septicaemia shock in 2016.

The data provided also revealed that 53% of HIV Positive pregnant women were given the Anti-retro-viral treatment (ARV), which was 37% short of the 90% target in the 2016-2020 strategic plan.

Greater Accra region also recorded the highest number of  HIV positive pregnant women with 3570 cases.

Read Also: Top ten causes of admissions and deaths in Ghana [infographic]

iWatch Africa can also confirm that the Government’s promise to establish the HIV/AIDS Fund had not taken place as at April 2018.

Below is an info graphic report;

Credit: Gideon Sarpong | News Content Director | iWatch Africa

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Link here: https://goo.gl/JF72Vt

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The report also revealed that Asphyxia was the leading cause of death among children under the age 5 with over 430 cases. Second place was malaria with over 300 cases recorded.

Diabetes, which ranked as the number 14 cause of most deaths in Ghana in 2005, is now the number 7 cause of most deaths, representing over 46 percent increase in diabetes death rates in the last ten years, and the biggest increase since 2005.

Below is an infographic report on the ten causes of admissions and deaths in Ghana;

Report by Gideon Sarpong | News Content Director | iWatch Africa

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This means that the government managed to save over GH¢1.2 billion which otherwise would have been paid out as liability claims.

Another very troubling development discovered during the assessment of the report on Liabilities of Ministries in Ghana was the difficulty of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to reconcile its liability portfolio with figures provided by the Ministry of Health which resulted in huge discrepancies.

For example; a schedule of debt compiled by MoF on behalf of Ghana Health Service asserted that government was indebted to five contractors totaling GH¢14,742,846.39 as at 31 December, 2016. However, MoH asserted that government liability in relation to various transactions was GH¢1,003,951.30 as at 31 December, 2016.

Read Also: Gov’t rejected payment claims of over GH¢40 million to Zoomlion in 2017

Below is an infographic breakdown of the liability claims that were rejected by the Auditor General under the Ministry of Health in 2017.

Report by  Gideon Sarpong | Policy Analyst |  iWatch Africa

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The allowance restoration is part of a broader goal to make Colleges of Education freely accessible to all eligible students and train teachers to drive quality education provision.

The previous National Democratic Party (NDC) government scrapped the allowance in 2014, under which nursing trainees received at least GH¢ 450.00 every quarter.

Under the new allowance scheme, the Government of Ghana has budgeted GH¢ 232 million to cater for an expected 58,000 nurses across the country. Each beneficiary will receive up to GH¢ 400.00.

Some students who had already received their September allowance confirmed to iWatch Africa the validity of the president’s claim and expressed their satisfaction that the government had honoured its mandate.

Trainee nurses pay about ₵2000 per semester as tuition. This makes at least ₵4,000 a year. The government is paying ₵400 to cover 10 months of each year. This makes it ₵4,000 in allowance.

Read Also: Government affordable housing for teachers & free Wifi project yet to commence

iWatch Africa will continue to review this policy.

Credit: Policy and Content Analyst | Gideon Sarpong | iWatch Africa

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It is a turnkey arrangement with Messrs NMS Infrastructure and Barclays Bank Plc, London at an estimated cost of US$175m.

The six district hospitals are supposed to be built in Dodowa, Sekondi, Kumawu, Abetifi, Fomena and Garu Tempane.

On 28th of August 2013, the government through the then Minster for Health Hanny Sherry Ayitey broke the ground to signify the commencement of constructional work on the projects which was to be sited at Kansaworodo in the Essikado-Ketan constituency.

Hon. Hanny Sherry Ayittey had disclosed that the European Hospital, located in Takoradi was also going to be upgraded and re-equipped as part of the contract.

She also noted that the 120-bed capacity hospitals represented a new direction and a departure from the traditional building construction technologies.

The Minister had again disclosed that all medical equipment for the construction of the hospitals had been sourced from the United Kingdom, adding that the execution of the projects was underway and being supported by a UK-Ghana technical team.

CONCEPT

It was part of Government’s efforts to eliminate health care disparity in the country to reduce infant and maternal mortality all geared towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals four to eight.

DEVELOPMENT

Checks conducted indicate that the construction of the six hospitals commenced in earnest, and at Dodowa in the Greater Accra with progress of work hitting completion stage. When completed, the Dodowa district hospital would be handed over to the community, with 60% progress of work done at the Fomena district hospital, while 45% has been recorded at Kumawu, and 30% at Abetifi.

In the case of the Sekondi hospital, several challenges have stalled the project since the groundbreaking ceremony.

Though part of the six district hospitals, the Sekondi project is yet to commence as at the time of filing this report.

The Sekondi –Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) claims it had to abandon a 50 acre land it had earlier acquired for the construction of the hospital at Kansawrodo, a suburb of Takoradi, after learning that the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC ) had its pipeline passing through the land in question, which made it unsuitable for the construction of the hospital project. This was discovered months after the ground-breaking ceremony.

The assembly claims it later settled on another land at Eshiam, at the outskirts of Kojokrom, for the execution of the project, but the Eshiam land was also abandoned and a new one located at Essipong was secured for same purpose.

In 2015, the Exim Bank UK got furious and was considering of abrogating the contract.

Apparently, the contract had detailed the funding and construction of the hospitals in the Western Region.

This was made known by the Western Regional Communications Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Phamus Tumi Acquah.

I-watch African can confirm that the land secured eventually was also abandoned for a 42 arce land at Kansawrodo.

This land was much closer to the Methodist Senior High School.

The site was handed over to the contractor to conduct topographical survey.

The Takoradi European hospital for instance is at 25% for completion.

All conditions preceding the refurbishment had been fulfilled apart from tax exemption.

CURRENT STATE

Public relations officer of the Sekondi –Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly John Laste confirmed with our Western Regional representative that the assembly has finally secured a 42 acre of land for the construction of the district hospital.

Even with that, he says the contractor had to stop working because there was litigation on ownership of the land

“The land has been handed over to the contractor, over 42 square acres of land and the contractor started moving to site till we had an issue with the ownership of the land”

He says the issue was taken to court and the court has ruled in favour of the family that gave the land to the assembly.

He assured that the assembly would give the land to the ministry of health for construction works to start at the site. He explained that the land litigation was one of the main reasons for the delay in the execution of the project.

“It an issue of we getting back to the contractor and informing him of the court ruling and they will prepare to go back to site to commence work”

Four years after ground breaking, acquiring land has been the major hindrance for the project, so now that the dust has settled when is work likely to begin? This was the question posed by our reporter.

Mr John Laste in response however said “for now i am unable to give specific date as to when the contractor will go back to site. Once that the health directorate is aware of the court decision, it is their duty to officially communicate with the contractor to get back to site” he pointed out.

Mr John Laste revealed that the assembly is just a supervising agency. According to him, because they didn’t award the contract to the contractor, their only role was to get the ministry of health a land, and they would then direct contractor to go to site. But the Regional health director Emmanuel Tinkorang has refused to comment on the progress of work done at the site chosen for the project.

Read Also: Central Region: Mid/third-Quarter Review of GoG Capital Expenditure on Health [Infographic]

Conclusion

Meanwhile residents in the Sekondi Takoradi metropolis say, authorities must do something else the metropolitan area could miss the opportunity presented by the donors.

Again, they are worried that it could affect quality health service delivery in the city due to the increasing number of patients at Out Patients Departments (OPD) of the few hospitals operating in Sekondi Takoradi.

(This report was filed by our Western Region correspondent Ina –Thalia Quansah | iWatch Africa) Edited by Gideon Sarpong.

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The residents in an exclusive interview with iWatch Africa correspondent Abdul Latif argued that if the facility is not completed on time many people may lose their lives because of the long distance needed to travel to access a health facility.

According to residents of the community, the project was abandoned after the change of government in January 2017. A resident, Abdulai Adams stated that, residents who were employed as labourers at the facility have been laid off. Something he argued has contributed to an increased unemployment rate among the youth in the community.

Another resident Yakubu Ibrahim also expressed worry about the lack of doctors in other health facilities in the community and appealed to the government to post more doctors to the area. He stressed that the inadequate health personnel in the community is affecting them greatly.

Salaga is the district capital of East Gonja, and it is about 114 miles from Tamale. Salaga is a two hours journey from Tamale but because of the bad nature of the roads, it takes more than the usual two hours. Most of the people in the community are farmers and traders.

Our visit to the project site at Salaga revealed that the 60-bed hospital project is at the roofing stage.
Several phone calls made to Euroget De-Invest, the Egyptian company in charge of the project and a follow-up visit by iWatch Africa to ascertain the state of affairs of the Salaga project yielded no fruits as no official was ready to talk to us. Attempts to also get a response from officials of the Ministry of Health have proven futile so far.

Background report by dailyguideafrica.com

Sources claim that $18 million paid to Euroget De-Invest by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration raises a lot of questions since the entire project was a supplier’s credit which required that any payment by the government of Ghana to the investor be made only after the nine hospitals have been fully constructed and equipped before the deadline – which was November 2012.

Contract

Euroget De-Invest had a contract with the government of Ghana to design, build and equip nine new hospitals at the cost of $519 million, excluding insurance.

Sources indicated that under the provision of the contract, the entire project should have been completed within three years of commencement – that’s between 2008 and 2011. Under the terms of the contract, Euroget was obligated to obtain and provide financing in the sum of $612.42 million – being principal and insurance – immediately upon the signing of the contracts in 2008 and commence with the construction of all the nine hospitals, which should have been finished by 2011.

The contract was awarded by the Kufuor administration in 2008 to be completed in three years, but the change of government passed the mandate to the NDC to oversee the execution of the projects.

But nine years down the line, none of the health facilities has been completed, with Euroget crying for cash to execute them.

The initial late take-off of the projects was attributed to the Egyptian political crisis which the contractor claimed prevented the company from sourcing for funds.
Mills’ Probe

However, even before the take-off, Euroget De-Invest had succeeded in grabbing $18 million from the NDC government. The payment was said to have been made on the blind side of the then president, John Evans Atta Mills.

Sources indicate that President Atta Mills got furious about the payment and called for investigation, but died shortly after in 2012, thereby stalling the investigation.

After receiving the $18 million, the Chief Executive of Euroget De-Invest, Dr. Said Deraz, is alleged to be pushing for additional money from the government of Ghana for 6% on insurance interest on the external funds which he promised to invest in the projects.

The company is said to be demanding additional $147 million from the Ministries of Finance and Health for work done, even though most of the projects are at standstill.

The Madina and Adenta district hospital projects have not seen a single block being laid while work on the Salaga, Wa, Tepa, and Twifo-Praso hospitals are stalled because of supposed inadequate cash.

The Resident Civil Engineer of Euroget De-Invest at Wa, Ahmed Abu Shama, who recently conducted the new Upper West Regional Minister, Suleman Alhassan round, said the project had delayed due to lack of funds and other challenges and said they needed funding from the government to complete the project.

(This report was edited and put together by Gideon Sarpong, Content and Policy Strategist, iWatch Africa. Our Northern Region correspondent Abdul Latif contributed largely to this report)

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The GoG promised to deliver seven (7) district hospitals in seven districts across the country. These districts are Sekondi Takoradi Municipality, Abetifi District, Garu District, Kumawu District, Fomena District and Dodowa District.

iWatch Africa has conducted a mid/third-quarter review of government’s commitment to deliver these seven district hospitals. Below is our findings;

Delivery of 7 District Hospitals Including Those At Dodowa, Sekondi, Fomena and Garu-Tempane;

This project which is currently ongoing is a turnkey arrangement with Messrs NMS Infrastructure and Barclays Bank Plc, London at an estimated cost of US$175,000,000.00

The beneficiary communities are listed below;

Sekondi Takoradi Municipality – Progress stands at 25%

Abetifi District- Progress stands at 30%

Garu District- Progress stands at 80%

Kumawu District- Progress stands at 45%

Fomena District- Progress stands at 60%

Dodowa District- Progress stands at about 92%

Construction has commenced in earnest at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region. Progress stands at about 92% at Dodowa, 60% at Fomena, 45% at Kumawu, 30% at Abetifi. Takoradi European is at 25% complete.

Below are some pictures taken by our regional reps:

Credit: Gideon Sarpong | Content and Policy Strategist | iWatch Africa

(Our regional correspondents Amanda Okpara and Felix Konyele contributed to this report.)

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Below is our infographic report:

Credit: Policy and Content Strategist | Gideon Sarpong | iWatch Africa

Our Central Region correspondent Amanda Okpara contributed to this report.

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